Rapid Vienna v Sturm Graz — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Bundesliga · Sunday, 30 August 2026. Final score 3–1 (half-time 2–1). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 50% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals50%50%Under
Over 3.5 goals28%72%no pick
Both teams to score56%44%Yes

The result model puts Rapid Vienna at 38%, the draw at 26% and Sturm Graz at 36%, from expected goals of 1.46 and 1.42.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Bundesliga has produced over 2.5 goals in 51% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Rapid Vienna have 2 in 3 this season (1 of 2 at home), Sturm Graz 0 in 4 (0 of 2 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 53% and 44%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 3 and 4 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 47% and 46%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 47%.

Head to head. These sides have met 12 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 33%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 47%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 55%, from expected goals of 1.46 for Rapid Vienna and 1.42 for Sturm Graz. Folding in 30% of that view gives 49%.

Calibration. Tested against 97,729 past matches, our ratings below 55% have run consistently too pessimistic — a figure in the high 30s, for instance, has come in about four points higher. So ratings in that range are lifted part-way back, giving 50%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
Rapid Vienna367%33%33%
Sturm Graz40%0%50%

Head to head

17 May 26Sturm Graz 2–0 Rapid ViennaU2.5
5 Apr 26Rapid Vienna 0–2 Sturm GrazU2.5
2 Nov 25Rapid Vienna 2–1 Sturm GrazO2.5
10 Aug 25Sturm Graz 1–2 Rapid ViennaO2.5
18 May 25Rapid Vienna 3–1 Sturm GrazO2.5
4 Apr 25Sturm Graz 2–0 Rapid ViennaU2.5

More: Rapid Vienna season stats · Sturm Graz season stats · Bundesliga table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.